A little HaruMaru oneshot that I thought of whilst pacing. Can be yaoi if you so please. Beware of language.

Disclaimer: I don not own Prince Of Tennis. I don't even own the red umbrella.

Hold Me

Marui huffed as he wrung out his wet towel, which now resembled a faded rainbow. He had been blamed for one of Niou's pranks and was now being punished for it by having to clean the whole clubroom. Honestly, the rest of the team might not be geniuses like him but they should at least realise that it was Niou who had pulled the prank. Was he really the one that noticed Niou disappearing 20 minutes before Sanada called practice to an end? Then again, they had all been chasing Akaya…

It was a pretty elaborate prank. The Trickster had somehow hooked all the lockers up to a different can of paint so that when the lockers were opened the paint cans tipped over and covered the clubroom and members in a myriad of colours. Marui had been the last person to enter since he had doubled back to the courts to get his water bottle and when he had entered he had immediately started laughing his ass off. Sanada had immediately assumed that he had been the one to pull the prank since he was the only paint free person (besides Niou who had disappeared under the pretence of having to run an errand for his mother, the cover provided by Yagyuu) and had tarundoru'd him into cleaning up all the paint.

Marui sighed. It had taken him a good twenty minutes to disconnect the paint can from locker and a further two hours to clean up all the mess. He had missed dinner so he was now starving and it had started raining an hour in so there was no way he was going home soon since his umbrella had been nicked by Niou the previous week. Marui felt his eye twitch. It seemed like just about all his problems were in some way related to Niou.

"I see you've finally finished cleaning up." Marui looked up and glared. Niou was leaning against the closed clubroom door, smirking that goddamn smirk of his.

"No thanks to you, bastard." Marui snapped as he stood up rigidly. Niou's smirk widened; he loved winding Marui up.

"I was born in wedlock, thank you very much." Niou drawled out. "Besides, how was I suppose to know that they would blame it on you? I thought Yanagi would figure out that it was me."

"Yanagi wasn't here today, remember? He's at his cousin's wedding." Marui said hotly as he flung his towel in his bag and started to change into his school uniform. If he was going home in the rain then he was going to make sure that he was as warm as possible.

"Whoa, calm down, Marui. I know you want me but there's no need to strip." Niou teased. Marui blushed as he dropped his tennis shirt and was about to retort when there was a flash of lightning and a loud rumble of thunder. Niou blinked in surprise as the short redhead flung himself into his arms. "Marui?" The redhead pushed the other boy away quickly, his blush darkening at what he had done.

"I-I wasn't scared, okay? The thunder just surprised me and made me trip! Only little kids are scared of thunder!" Marui said loudly. Niou nodded, choosing not to point out that he hadn't said anything about being scared. The redhead moved back towards his bag and grabbed his shirt, trying to forget the incident. He might've been successful if the lights hadn't chosen that moment to go out as a particularly loud crash of thunder sounded. He flung himself at the Trickster again, this time with enough force to send them both to the ground.

Niou could honestly say that he was surprised. Not only had he not expected the boy to be afraid of thunder, and quite possibly the dark too, but he had also not expected the boy to try and find comfort from him of all people.

"Don't laugh." He heard Marui breathe out shakily. "Please be a good friend and hold me and don't laugh, 'Haru. Please don't laugh."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Niou said and for once he was telling the truth. He shifted his grip on the trembling boy and pulled him closer, trying to share what little body heat he had. Niou wanted to get up off the freezing floor but that would mean moving Marui and the boy was having trouble breathing, let alone standing, and not even Niou was that cruel. He sighed mentally and tried to get comfy as he prepared himself to sit out the entire thunderstorm.

Fortunately for the Trickster, the storm was relatively short as it ended an hour later and the lights flickered back on. Marui wiped the last few tears from his eyes and peeled himself away from the taller boy, shaking slightly as he quickly finished changing. Niou got to his feet as Marui changed and dug around in his bag for an umbrella. When Marui was finished changing, he wordlessly pulled the redhead closer and put the umbrella up, surreptitiously angling it so that the boy was completely protected. It meant that one side of Niou got wet, but so what? He gently steered the redhead in the direction of his house, one arm round him at all times for warmth. He didn't let go until the redhead was safely inside his house. Marui turned round to look at the Trickster.

"Thank you." Marui said gratefully, bowing slightly. "Thank you for holding me. It helped a lot."

"Anytime, Maru, anytime." Niou said as he ruffled his hair, grinning when the other pouted at him. "I suppose you want your umbrella back, huh?" Marui shook his head.

"Nah, you need it more than I do right now. Thank for bringing me home." He said as Niou nodded and started to walk back down his drive. Marui remembered something and quickly shouted after him. "I still want my umbrella back tomorrow, ya hear me?" The only acknowledgement he got from Niou was a raised hand and Marui watched as the boy walked down the street, the red umbrella cutting a slice of life in the rain dulled landscape.

A/N: Love it? Hate it? Tell me what you think of Marmite (sorry, bad joke).